DJAdvice.net - News for DJ’s and Musicians

Yamaha announces its rollout of six upgraded MG Series analog mixers, adding to the four models introduced earlier this year. Drawing on Yamaha’s extensive experience and expertise in sound processing, these new mixers include features inherited from the company’s professional mixing consoles and offer intuitive operation, crystalline sound and components that are optimized to work together.

“Our new MG Mixer series strikes a perfect balance between cost and performance,” said Wayne Hrabak, marketing manager, Live Sound, Yamaha Pro Audio & Combo Division. “People want utility mixers to be small and light while sounding great, and that’s just what these mixers provide.” (more…)

Faber Acoustical has introduced version 2 of the SignalScope and SignalScope Pro real-time signal analysis software. The major upgrade makes both products Leopard compatible. SignalScope say that this builds on their tradition of award-winning design and advanced measurement capabilities with the inclusion of technology previously only available in Faber Acoustical’s flagship product, Electroacoustics Toolbox. (more…)

BTE Audio has extended its line of Equalization Algorithms with the BEQ2, a high performance digital equalization algorithm that simulates the sound and feel of the world-renowned British Mixing Consoles of the 1970s. With its proprietary topology, the BEQ2 algorithm simultaneously achieves both absolute sonic accuracy and extremely high processing efficiency. Targeted at desktop and embedded professional audio applications, the BEQ2 algorithm will enable quality-conscious third-parties to incorporate the highly revered British EQ sound into their products.

For more information, visit their web site at www.bteaudio.com.

Inspired by a combination of several old school beat boxes and the circuit-bending culture around the “toy” Casio and Yamaha keyboards of the 80s, Broken Drum Machine brings lively, ever changing, circuit-bent drum machine sounds to your DAW.

BDM is a plugin instrument designed for the musicians who love chaos and usually find the unpredictable behaviour of an uncontrollable sound machine stimulating and inspiring. (more…)

Brainworx release the bx_hybrid mono and stereo EQ

Brainworx tell us that their new bx_hybrid is a state-of-the art mono and stereo EQ that contains several unique tools, such as an internal M/S processor (stereo version only, of course) for stereo width control and a mono maker, a Brainworx invention that will mono out any stereo signal up to a certain user-adjustable threshold frequency with only one knob - while automatically compensating for the potential loss in the overall bass-spectrum.
bx_hybrid was designed to map any and all EQ features of the Digidesign ICON center section EQ knobs. This means 7-band EQ incl. Lo- and Hi-Pass filters with various adjustable filter orders (up to 5th order - 30dB / octave), Lo- and Hi-Shelving EQs, Peak filters, Notch-filters (with adjustable Q!), and another Brainworx invention: The joystick EQs.
The joystick EQs are bass- & presence shifter EQs (taken from bx_digital) with shiftable center-frequencies. When used with Digidesign ICON controllers these shifter EQs can be mapped to and controlled by the surround panners of the ICON, making, say Brainworx, this EQ an 11-band EQ with truly unique ease-to-use. They say that there is nothing like the bass-shift for tweaking bass-drums, and that the presence shift is great for acoustic guitars. A sophisticated auto solo mode will solo single frequency bands and tweak Q controls - upon mouse-click or when used with the touch sensitive EQ knobs of the ICON.
With internal double-precision calculating these EQs work with double resolution in 44 and 48kHz sessions, this way avoiding Nyquist frequency problems and allowing for digital EQing up to 26 kHz in low res sessions.
Pricing and Availability:
bx_hybrid Native - VST / RTAS - (AU coming very soon)
bx_hybrid comes in a set of a Mono and a Stereo version (Mod 1.0 & Mod 2.0).
The international net. price for the bx_hybrid EQs is 216,81 EUR (258 EUR incl. 19% VAT, $298 USD.
More information:

• www.brainworx-music.de

D&M Professional, manufacturer of the renowned Marantz® Professional PMD® series of professional recording products, is introducing the new PMD620 Hand-Held Digital Compact Recorder. Marantz Professional has developed the PMD620 to provide advanced functionality in a smaller, more convenient configuration that will reach into new markets, including the professional audio and MI markets, further emphasizing D&M’s ongoing commitment to supplying customers with market-driven product solutions.

The PMD620 is Marantz Professional’s newest and smallest handheld portable recorder—it fits easily in a hand or in a pocket, but packs quite a punch for its size. The PMD620 offers direct to MP3 recording in three quality levels, as well as fully uncompressed, CD-quality 44.1/48 kHz .wav format in 16 or 24-bit resolution, allowing the user to configure the PMD620 for a wide variety of applications, from extended-length voice recordings to high-quality music applications. Sound quality is enhanced by the inclusion of two condenser microphones on the PMD620, as well as line and external mic inputs, and an external mic output.

The new PMD620 also utilizes the SD flash memory card for data storage, a first for the PMD Series of recorders. SD (secure digital) is a highly stable and the most widely available flash media format, so users will have ready access to very cost-effective data storage. Additionally, the PMD620 accepts memory cards of high capacity (up to 2-TB 2048 gigabytes).

Incorporating user feedback from across the PMD Series spectrum, the new PMD620 sports several new layout enhancements making for a simpler and more confident experience. The PMD620 offers one-touch record engagement using a button with its own tactile feel and red highlight illumination. The unit’s transport controls will be familiar to users of personal portable music devices, and incorporates a thumb-operated scroll wheel and a vivid organic LED (OLED) display screen, one of the first in the industry, which uses very little power to illuminate, thus extending the unit’s battery life. (The PMD620 is powered by two AA batteries.) The display’s black background means that all alpha-numerics and function icons are always crisp and easy to read. The screen is also configurable thanks to two font sizes, allowing more information on the screen with the smaller font and highly readable key information with the larger one. These are just a few of the ways in which the PMD620 crosses market sector lines, making it the choice of the executive suite and the iPod® generation, as well as the educators, journalists and broadcast professionals who have been the core markets for the PMD Series.

The PMD620 also offers editing capabilities that constitute a field recorder truly in a class by itself. Included in the firmware is “Copy Segment” editing, which uses non-destructive cut-and-paste-style editing to create a new sound file, which can be up/downloaded via the built-in USB port. Another menu feature, “Skip Back,” allows transcribers the ability to review recorded audio from 1 to 60 previous seconds. And the PMD620’s USB 2.0 port allows effortless drag-and-drop transfer of files to a PC. In fact, as powerful and feature-laden as it is, the PMD620 is simple to operate. “Level” and “Peak” LEDs let you know the status of your input signal, and you can toggle between four displays screens that provide elapsed time, time remaining and other key data.

Commenting on the new PMD620, Peter Papageorge, Director of Sales for D&M Professional, stated, “The new PMD620 is intended to add yet another dimension to Marantz Professional’s family of portable digital recorders. It incorporates many of the same features we developed for the highly successful PMD660 and adds to them, at the same time achieving them in a significantly smaller sized unit. This combination of power, portability and size means the PMD620 will offer a greater number of users and markets a more flexible field recording experience.”

The new PMD620 will be available in November.

For more information, visit their web site at www.marantz.com.
Marantz PMD660 Handheld CompactFlash Recorder
Marantz PMD671 Compact Flash Recorder
Marantz CDR420 MP3/CD Recorder Workstation
Marantz PMD670 Solid-State Recorder
Marantz CDR300 Portable CD Field Recorder

Blue Cat Audio has released an update of the Blue Cat’s Parametr ‘EQ series, their DirectX and VST EQ plugins for widows providing the best of the digital and analog worlds thanks to non-linear modeling capabilities. This new version brings Undo/Redo support, presets export/import and new user interface features. The upgrade is free for V3.0 customers.

The Parametr’EQ series offers the best of the analog and digital worlds, including non linear modeling capabilities to provide analog compression and distortion at every EQ stage. The output peak meter and brickwall limiter are of great help to adjust the output level. These plugins also offer an original and exclusive window opacity feature which let you see through the user interface while adjusting the parameters.

The special ‘Widening’ version provides mid/side channels where you can manage the center position for the M-S matrix, enabling precise positioning of the EQ in the stereo field or multi band stereo widening and narrowing capabilities. These plugins are available one-by-one or within the Parametr’EQ Pack bundle. They can also be purchased in the Blue Cat’s Master Pack mastering bundle for a complete mastering solution.

New in Blue Cat’s ParametrEQ series 3.2: (more…)

db audioware has released version 1.1.0 upgrades of Sidechain Compressor and Sidechain Gate, its latest two dynamics processing plug-ins. All the enhancements in the release have been suggested by users since the plug-ins were launched in July 2007.

Sidechain Compressor gets a new manual Gain control, which can either be used independently for manual gain make-up, or to fine tune output levels when used with Auto Gain. This rounds out the Compressor’s feature set and greatly improves its operation as a standard insert effect.

Both Sidechain Compressor and Sidechain Gate get enhanced external side-chain capability. It is now possible to side-chain multiple “receive” plug-ins from a single “send” plug-in, opening the way to one-to-many-tracks as well as one-to-one-track side-chain applications.

Finally, the noise bursts in the demo versions of both plug-ins have been reduced in repetition and volume so as to be less intrusive to potential users trying them out.

Major changes this release include:

• Feature: Added Gain control to allow manual gain make-up and fine adjustment of the output (compressor only)
• Feature: It is now possible to connect multiple “receive” plug-ins to each Universal Sidechain
• Bug fix: fixed intermittent crash when Listen switch selected
• Bug fix: OS X installer was not working for users lacking admin rights

Registered owners of Sidechain Compressor and Sidechain Gate can download upgrades free of charge.

from their personal support page in the db audioware customer support centre website.

Sidechain Compressor and Sidechain Gate each retail at $84/€62/£42 and are available for immediate purchase and download.

A bundle of both plug-ins is also offered at $126/€93/£63.

For more information, visit their web site at www.db-audioware.com.

See Also….

BTE Audio has released BEQ1, a high performance digital equalization algorithm which simulates the sound and feel of world renowned British Mixing Consoles of the 1970s.

With its proprietary topology, BEQ1 algorithm simultaneously achieves both absolute sonic accuracy and extremely high processing efficiency.

Targeted at desktop and embedded professional audio applications, BEQ1 algorithm enables quality conscious third-parties to incorporate the highly revered British EQ sound into their products.

For more information, visit their web site at www.bteaudio.com.

40,000 Items in Stock at Musician’s Friend